LENNIE LAWRENCE said it was a hard decision to reinstate Graham Kavanagh at the expense of Gareth Whalley for the clash with the Hammers.

LENNIE LAWRENCE said it was a hard decision to reinstate Graham Kavanagh at the expense of Gareth Whalley for the clash with the Hammers.

Whalley scored City's equaliser in the 3-1 win at Coventry a week earlier but was named as a substitute for Saturday's match.

"It was very hard putting Kav in for Gareth. Had Kav not been in the best form of his career then I would have left the team alone," said Lawrence.

"Gareth can consider himself very unfortunate. He didn't deserve to come out of the team.

"But Kav has been consistently excellent for us this season, apart from the game at Crystal Palace a few weeks ago when everyone was poor, including him.

"Gareth was not very happy when I told him the team for West Ham but all I can say to him is that it was a very difficult decision for me to make."

The Pitch

HAMMERS boss Alan Pardew watched his new club pick up their fourth successive draw at Ninian Park.

"We need to score more goals, it's as simple as that," said the former Reading manager.

"But there have been a lot of changes at West Ham - a new manager, new personnel and we have had a lot of injuries as well. There is a lot on us at the moment.

"We have got more quality in certain areas compared to other teams in this division and we have got to capitalise on that.

"We did OK against Cardiff but I thought we played too much in front of them. We are known for being able to keep hold of the ball but we didn't do that well enough against Cardiff.

"The desire at West Ham has been questioned recently but we showed plenty of that in this game."

The Opposition

BLUEBIRDS defender Tony Vidmar helped snuff out the threat of the Hammers' #10m-rated striker Jermain Defoe to pick up the man of the match award.

"I thought we had more clear-cut chances. John Robinson hit the post and David James made a good save in the first-half with his legs," said the Australian international.

"Overall we're happy with a point but at the same time we're a little disappointed we didn't get the extra two.

"But I thought we did well. We had a lot of possession in the first-half and West Ham came into it more in the second-half but we limited their chances.

"Defoe is a difficult player to play against. He's a very good player and he posed a good test for Danny (Gabbidon) and me."

The Terracing

MARK GERMAIN, of Birchgrove, Cardiff, said, "It was a game of few chances and I'm happy we didn't lose it. I thought a draw was a fair result.

"Gordon missed our best chance. He should have scored with that header and maybe missing the goal affected his confidence but I thought he led the line well.

"I thought Gabbidon also played well, keeping out Defoe. Defoe scored three against us in the last match but we had done our homework on him this time. We held our own against West Ham and nearly got all three points. We were without a lot of players but this game proved the strength of our squad is pretty strong."